S16.E05: Sidelined

[Tara Ariano]

The teams are challenged to race through the air across a canyon and then solve a puzzle; and the winners get the chance to sideline one player from the losing team at weigh-in.

[donnamarie]

How adorable are those blue fingernails on Damian Woody. I'm hoping he makes it through to the end.

[CaliforniaLove]

When did Toma turn into Andy Garcia?

I can't stand the big guy on the red team for some reason (Rob?).

It was time for white to lose someone, but have I missed the parts where they have been dicks about winning? The way Laura snarked on them for their sideline backfiring seemed a bit unnecessary.

[Meraji]

Did anyone else think that the white team's decision at the weigh-in was completely influenced by Jen, who was influenced by tbp so the white would in fact lose a team member? I call shenanigans. Damien lost a ton last week!  Why would they think he was going to do a two-fer?  They should've targeted the red team.  Not that I'm pro-white team, but I found their logic flawed.

 

Also, when is someone going to win two weigh-ins at Comeback Canyon?  Kinda boring if it ends up that the person who was eliminated the previous week comes back to the ranch. That wouldn't nearly be as dramatic as someone from week two, say.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Meraji

[Kromm]

Also, when is someone going to win two weigh-ins at Comeback Canyon?  Kinda boring if it ends up that the person who was eliminated the previous week comes back to the ranch. That wouldn't nearly be as dramatic as someone from week two, say.

Comeback Craphole is one of the worst ideas this show has ever had (and it's had some doosies).

[newyawk]

I am getting tired of seeing the White Team win everything. I wanted some other team to win the canyon challenge (during which my face would have been SOAKED with tears had that been me up there but I digress) But I was quite happy to see Woody overcome his terror to help his team. Still. I am tired of the White Team.

 

I think it is a good psychological tactic to use something like "sideline a player" because in theory, that should make everyone work that much harder to lose weight, particularly the ones who are perceived as maybe not the ones to be wary of.

 

When Sonya said they chose to sideline Damian..after his spectacular last two weeks, I thought, they are all either as stupid as Blake, or they are being charitable with some agenda. Or just stupidly charitable. I must say I am stupefied that he managed to lose 6 pounds after the great numbers he's been putting up. And, loved that Damian, along with his ladies, was also wearing blue nailpolish this week. Team spirit!

 

Thank you, Lori, for pulling Blue team's asses out of the fire this week. 9 pounds, wow!  I guess you aren't totally intolerable. :)

 

When I was watching the Comeback Canyon segment, I was thinking "don't you DARE take another dive, Mike!" I would have been so mad if he did.  He rocked it! I think Chandra will be a real contender for the At Home prize.

 

They seem to be balancing the one hour format much better, they aren't having to shove the "Where Are They Now" to the next week like last season, which SUCKED. If they can keep doing one hour shows like tonight's episode, which was wellbalanced and didn't seem to be lacking much in anything (to me) then I'm onboard with it. But they still need to put some focus on healthy cooking tips. Maybe that could be highlighted in another episode.

 

Blake is still a giggling idiot. I'm starting to notice how both rows of teeth show when she speaks or laughs. 

 

Scott did great.  Wondering what went on with Rob. 5 lbs isn't nothing, but he still has so much more weight to lose and he looked guilty as hell at the end of the weigh in.  Randomly, Gina looks model-gorgeous already. Apropos of nothing, Rondalee this week reminded me of Khloe Kardashian.

 

Oh, Matt. Holy schnikes. :(  And yay, everyone's "favorite" shitfood gluttony challenge next week.

Edited October 10, 2014 by newyawk

[mythoughtis]

I haven't seen any rudeness or trash-talking on the part of the white team, so Laura must be a sore loser.  The sideline pick was not good reasoning.   Just because someone has been the biggest loser, doesn't mean they will continue.  In fact, sometime they hit a wall, and would be a good pick.  I think Jen overstepped her role in the game, she's not supposed to interfere in strategy and challenges.    However, I will admit that I get tired of one team winning all the time. 

 

I like Comeback Canyon.  It's a better way of bringing someone back than sending them home and brining them back later.  I think they probably get a lot of one on one education and training there that will better prepare them to go home, and lose weight. 

 

Blake is an immature 18 year old as opposed to some of the ones that have been on in past seasons.   She giggles and bats her lashes, and she annoys me.... but I think she will grow up to be a very nice person.

 

Rob is still defeated, as is Matt.  Matt will really benefit from the Comeback Canyon week.  However, I think he should kick his girlfriend to the curb when he goes home.   Threatening to leave him if he doesn't lose weight doesn't show love to me. 

[Eeksquire]

I was so rooting for Rob to go home.  He bugs.  He BUGS.  He weighs over 400 pounds still and he only lost 5 lbs? The only thing good about that is that Dolvett will surely beat up on him next week.  (Although if he turns out to be the one that eats a whole bunch of junk and sabotages himself, I wouldn't be sad about that either.)

[ProfCrash]

Rob really needs to go. He is not happy and he is simply not trying to lose the weight. Something is massively off and I am guessing it is his nutrition. He has to be eating more then he is suppose to.

[WhineandCheez]

In the talking head in the beginning, when jen was wearing a white T with cutaway sleeves, I was a little scared of her biceps.  Shit, she has  a better body than Jillian.  Or even both of the male trainers!I can't stand the big guy on the red team for some reason (Rob?).

 

The idea of picking someone who has lost alot in the past week is ludicrous.  Dumb pick, if you lose big one or 2 weeks in a row it has to slow down.

 

I can't stand the big guy on the red team for some reason (Rob?).

I think I know the reason no one likes Rob is because he looks like  a fat kid in school.  Although he is an adult and works, he has a baby face and looks like a huge baby.

 

[pally]

You pick the biggest guy with the smallest weight loss from the week before picking Damien who has had several weeks of double digit loss was stupid.  He was due for a smaller week. 
Red Team Rob has dead eyes.  There is no life in them coupled with his anger issues, I just find it really hard to like him.

I do like White Team Sonya.  She just goes about her business with no fuss, no drama, and she succeeds.
I wonder if part of the problem with back to back winners at Comeback Canyon is due to the new person suddenly being hit with a new workout routine.  Changes in routines will often trigger a higher than normal weightloss especially if the loss has been going on for a while.  Or it simply might be the further we go in the game the more successful the new person has been.

 

[Primetimer]

A suboptimal choice causes the Sideline to rebound upon its masters.

Read the story

[ProfCrash]

Comeback Canyon is hindered by the fact that the person who arrives just had a low week so they are likely to have a good week the following week. Toss in a new work out regime and you have a recipe for continual cycling of people. I am guessing they won't have a repeat contender until the contestants are closer to their end weights.

 

It does appear that pretty much everyone working with Bob is really working. I think they managed to cast a group of people who are not quitters, probably because they chose all former athletes. There is more of a no quit mindset amongst athletes. Yes, some of these folks played at the high school level but they were all on teams that were successful so they were use to working hard. Given that many of the high school athletes, especially the female ones, were over weight when playing I am guessing that nutrition was as much a part of the problem as anything. Hopefully the time on the ranch is helping to learn how to eat better which will help them succeed with their long term goals. 

 

Rob is the only person who I think has quit. Although I think it is more accurate to say that he never started. His eyes have been vacant since he arrived and he simply is not making changes enough to progress.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

Comeback Craphole is one of the worst ideas this show has ever had (and it's had some doosies).

Bob must have a contract the producers couldn't break; that looks like something they set up to make him want to leave. I like the humor in having the person losing the weigh-in go out through a (wide) set of double folding doors. Or, at least, I presume it was meant as humor rather than an insult.

[Kromm]

In the talking head in the beginning, when jen was wearing a white T with cutaway sleeves, I was a little scared of her biceps.  Shit, she has  a better body than Jillian.  Or even both of the male trainers!I can't stand the big guy on the red team for some reason (Rob?).

 

The idea of picking someone who has lost alot in the past week is ludicrous.  Dumb pick, if you lose big one or 2 weeks in a row it has to slow down.

 

Did anyone else think that the white team's decision at the weigh-in was completely influenced by Jen, who was influenced by tbp so the white would in fact lose a team member? I call shenanigans. Damien lost a ton last week!  Why would they think he was going to do a two-fer?  They should've targeted the red team.  Not that I'm pro-white team, but I found their logic flawed.

It has the stench of JD Roth taking Jennifer into his office and "suggesting" what might be "best for the show" to her, and then her "suggesting" to the team they pick who they did.

[Dittohead]

 

Matt will really benefit from the Comeback Canyon week.  However, I think he should kick his girlfriend to the curb when he goes home.   Threatening to leave him if he doesn't lose weight doesn't show love to me.

I totally agree.  He should be the one doing the dumping.  Her threat may have been the major catalyst for his wanting to get healthy and lose weight, but it bugs me that this threat seems to be causing him undeserved worry, grief and/or depression.

[CaliforniaLove]

Yeah, to me it's no better than hooking up with someone for money, then they lose their ass & you say "if you don't get rich again, we're done".

I can of course see a partner being concerned for the other's HEALTH for the sake of getting to foresee as long a future as possible with them, but Matt makes it sound like they're through if he doesn't land another spread in GQ.

[newyawk]

I wonder if he is misrepresenting what she said..like if she said something like "I can't stay and watch you do this to yourself, I can't help you if you don't try to help yourself."

 

Also, wasn't being a fitness model his job? Did I miss what he's doing for a living these days?

Edited October 10, 2014 by newyawk

[auntjess]

At the beginning, when they announced the red line, I thought it would be a true red line, rather than by team.
That would be a lot more fair.
I can't remember the numbers, and erased the show, but would it still have been Matt?

[newyawk]

Matt lost 3 lbs. He lost the least out of everyone there.

[Eeksquire]

 

I can't remember the numbers, and erased the show, but would it still have been Matt?

 

Matt lost 3 lbs. He lost the least out of everyone there.

But I don't think his percentage of weight loss was lower than Rob's.  Rob lost five pounds, but is still over 400 (I think he went from 413 to 408?), which would only be 1.2% of his weight lost.  

 

Of course, if the white team had chosen Scott instead of Damian (which would have been my choice), the white team would have beaten the red team and Rob would have gone home.  I agree that this has a whiff of producer shenanigans, since no one who ever watched this show would have chosen to sideline someone who not only had a good week the week before, but a KILLER week, which is what Damian had, knowing that his whole team was on the line.

[newyawk]

Not sure, Matt did fall below the red line though.

[bigskygirl]

Matt and Mike at the Comeback Canyon. Two nice, decent guys, and one of them will be going home. I wish it was Blake or Rob would hit the road instead.

[ramble]

Matt and Mike at the Comeback Canyon. Two nice, decent guys, and one of them will be going home. I wish it was Blake or Rob would hit the road instead.

This exactly. I'll echo what y'all are saying about Rob. He looks dead inside, except for anger, he can tap into that. He comes across as unhappy & as if he doesn't want to be there. Then there's Blake. I know she's young so I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she's like nails on a chalkboard for me. She does enough giggling & hair flipping to be an entire squad of junior high cheerleaders. Could we double eliminate them but not let them go to Bob's.

Speaking of Bob's, I hate that it's Mike & Matt competing. Can't they both stay? I like Mike. He's so no nonsense about things. He just quietly does what he should & doesn't pretend that each task being done is worthy of massive celebration. Matt is pretty decent it seems as well. I was hoping he would stay long enough to see a fraction of his glory day abs if at all possible. Yep I'm shallow. I hope his girlfriend was just trying to shock him into action or he simply has taken her statement & amplified it. Saying I'm worried about you & I can't watch you kill yourself slowly is different than saying I'll leave if you don't lose the fat. She's stayed so far so I'm tempted to think he's made it more dramatic in his mind, or production has helped him dramatize it.

[Mu Shu]

Other than Mike, Damien, and the one with buggy eyes,  all the men seem to me to be suffering from low testosterone levels.   Even though Mike is the oldest,  he has the best physique, with muscle  definition and shoulder width  clearly evident.    Even the ex quarterback has rounded, narrowish shoulders.   Being overweight can and does cause men to experience increased estrogen and decreased testosterone, hence, the more feminine narrow shoulders and decreased muscle mass.   These guys will have a much slower and less dramatic transformation.    Mike needs to stay around since he's the only one, IMO, who you can see a difference in from week to week.   

 

Is Matt the guy who they always show a modeling photo of him peeking down his underwear?     My guess is that the GF isn't expecting him to return to that, but rather get to a size where she feels he's no longer crushing her.   Being with a very obese person is difficult, especially if you are committed to fitness. 

 

Man, I flinched when rage boy registered his paltry loss.    I thought he was going to destroy the faux scale, then remembered he's just a big bag of mush, rage, and gray hair at 26 and doesn't have the requisite strength or drive to do anything more than pitch a fit.    He's a creeper.

 

Keep chugging along, little Sonya.   My money is on you for the win.

[WhineandCheez]

I'm here to defend Matts girl friend..  First, hasn't she been with him like 6-10 years?  he didnt get huge just last year.  2nd, you don't gain like 100 pounds and stay the same emotionally either. You became a different person and most probably are quite negative. She may think a softpedalled ultamatim would support HIM. Obviuosly he was unhappy with himself

[newyawk]

Damien is also visibly slimmer, you can really see it in his face,.

[mamey2422]

@Mu Shu

Keep chugging along, little Sonya.   My money is on you for the win.

I generally find myself rooting for the blue team but Sonya has really grown on me and if they ever gave more of her back story I missed it. I'd like to know more about her. I thought it was sweet how she shared that she was a soon-to-be 40 year old virgin and I'm really rooting for her to lose weight but also to have her first relationship. She seems like such a good teammate. It's funny to see the gym teacher in her come out. 

[Eeksquire]

Sonya's a gym teacher? I must have missed that.  

 

I think it's interesting that so many of this year's contestants seem to be coaches/gym teachers/etc in their real lives.  I'd think that would give them more opportunity than most (or, for instance, people with strictly desk jobs) to be active if they wanted to.  I like that Jen might be an example in that regard, if she's really working out "with" them instead of just coaching from the sidelines.

[Mrs OldManBalls]

When did Toma turn into Andy Garcia?

Thank you! I was driving myself to distraction during the episode trying to figure out who he reminded me of. 

 

 Damien lost a ton last week!  Why would they think he was going to do a two-fer?  They should've targeted the red team.  Not that I'm pro-white team, but I found their logic flawed.

It was an odd choice wasn't it? I would have picked Scott or Rob. 

[sunrisepink]

Why don't they ever show meal times on this show, aside from the trainer-hosted cooking sessions? How do they handle meals? Does production keep the kitchen stocked with healthy foods and everyone just fends for themselves?

[Canada]

The white team might be physically strong, but they are stupid when it comes to strategy.  Didn't someone (Jen?) even tell them that Damien was a bad choice, because of his recent huge losses.  Well, that came back and bit them in the ass, didn't it?

[ProfCrash]

I give Blake a pass on many things because she is 18 years old. She has a lot of growing and living to do and is not emotionally mature enough to understand some of what she says and does. I get it, she is 18 and old enough to choose to be on the show but she is still 18 and developing as a person mentally, emotionally, and physically. I would love to know what role she played on her soccer team because she was very large and clearly over weight in her high school pictures. Not a surprise she probably graduated and then came on the show.

 

I would guess that she is dealing with some totally different issues then most of the contestants. She really is in a place were she can place a good amount of blame on her parents, they were the ones buying the food and probably making the food. If not, if they gave her that responsibility then the problem still lays with them because who gives a teenager that responsibility without following up to make sure they are making good choices. The good news is that she is in a good place to make some serious changes and learn how to be healthy for the rest of her life. She is probably more moldable then the adults who have been making crap choices for a much longer period of time.

 

I am not saying that Blake isn't annoying at times, she is, but that I can understand why she is that way far more easily the I can some of the obnoxious, annoying and down right mean adults we have seen on this show.

[bigskygirl]

Why should Blake blame her parents for her poor eating habits and weight gain. It reminds me of parents who want to sue McDonalds for their children eating there and gaining weight. Imo, once a person goes past a certain age, he or she should start to take responsibility for their actions. Yes, her parents may or not have taught her healthy eating habits, but she is at an age where she needs to grow up and stop blaming others for what she does.

 

It is easy to blame anyone or everything, including the kitchen sink, for weight gain or turning to food for comfort. Thankfully, Jillian is not on the show because she would be telling Blake it is mommy and daddy's fault for her obesity.

[ProfCrash]

Because Blake is 18 and has been taught to eat the way she does by her parents. Blake is not a 40 year old who has made bad decisions when offered the opportunity to make good decisions for ages. I would be surprised to find out that Blake has moved out of her parents place since most children graduate from high school at the age of 18.

 

So yes, she has that to fall back on. By choosing to appear on this show, she is hopefully indicating that she wants to change her habits and learn how to take proper care of herself. That is a good step for her to take. Look at the pictures they show of her playing sports in high school; she is 15, 16, 17 years old and she is well over weight in all of those pictures. I have not seen one picture of Blake looking healthy. I have seen many pictures of an over weight teen in a high school sports uniform. She did not get that way without parental consent in the form of buying crappy foods, eating out and allowing her to order crap, or accepting that she was eating poorly outside of the house and doing little to nothing about it.

 

If she was 21 and had been away at college and gained all that weight then that is on her. But she isn't 21. She is 18 on a show that filmed during the summer, so right after she graduated from high school. She hasn't had time to be out of her parents house and develop bad patterns on her own. So yeah, she can look pretty squarely at her parents and ask them why they didn't help her with her weight and why they didn't teach her better habits. Or, if they tried and she ate out f their eye sight, why they didn't get her the counseling she needed to deal with whatever food issues she clearly had.

[Jersey Guy 87]

 

Look at the pictures they show of her playing sports in high school; she is 15, 16, 17 years old and she is well over weight in all of those pictures. I have not seen one picture of Blake looking healthy.

 

This is why I don't understand why she was cast for this particular season.  The theme is "glory days" and it doesn't appear that Blake ever had glory days.  Yes, she played on her high school soccer team but she didn't appear to be fit then.  Some of the other "former athletes" also only played high school sports but they were (from what we can tell) in shape during their high school careers.

This isn't Blake's fault, of course, she didn't cast herself.  But she's out of place on this season and it's supposed theme (I have a tough time accepting that people who didn't play past high school qualify as true "former athletes" but at least they led lives after their playing careers ended.)

[Eeksquire]

 

This is why I don't understand why she was cast for this particular season.  The theme is "glory days" and it doesn't appear that Blake ever had glory days.

I can't help but think that the "Glory Days" theme of the season was retconned to respond to the critics after the end of last season.  The presence of so many former "high school" whatevers would seem to support that.  A tremendous number of people in this country participated in youth sports - it doesn't put them on the same level as professional or Olympic level athletes, but that's the story they're trying to sell us this season.  I'm not really buying it, but then again, it's not like I tune in to this show because it's known for the production team's clear and thoughtful consideration of the issues.

[Mu Shu]

Anyone can be on a high school sports team, even if they rarely or never play.    At the least,  they send you off throwing the shot put and setting up hurdles.     We had a tennis pro and a WNBA player, and then some cheerleaders and Blake.    Oh, and Lori the softball player.   Big difference between the high level athletes and the cheerleaders.   And Blake.    I wonder if Chandra was ever the "athlete" she claimed to be.    She was really obese even back in her "glory days".

 

Too bad the real female athletes are all gone but Lori and maybe Sonya.   I would have liked to have seen the WNBA player's progress week to week. 

 

Sadly I still don't know most of their names.   I guess having a sob story helps with that. 

[Mrsjumbo]

I still don't know about 1/2 the women on this show.

I don't have much to add that hasn't been said, but yes, Rob BUGS. For me it's immaturity mixed with anger that always seems to be simmering below the surface.

I'm glad they didn't show anyone having major anxiety about the canyon challenge. If it was a 2 hr format I think we would have seen a lot more dramatics & weeping. But looks like they all girded their loins & got it done.

And I had to LOL at the failure that is Comeback Canyon. I want this pattern to continue so they scrap this idea next season. Or keep them ALL there until the end.

[Kromm]

And I had to LOL at the failure that is Comeback Canyon. I want this pattern to continue so they scrap this idea next season. Or keep them ALL there until the end.

Unfortunately the best thing they can do with Comeback Craphole probably will feed Baub's ego even more in a few ways, but also majorly dent it in other ways. As you say, they need to keep more of them--maybe ALL of them--there until the planned "return" point, and then have a single contest to see who's lost the most, period.  Then that one person returns to the main game.  But if you do that, the need to see Bob weekly is less since only the weigh-in episode would really be dramatic enough to need TV time.  So even though at the same time he might feel like he's running his own whole alternate show, he'd also have to accept far less screen time. Which he probably won't like (and likely didn't like, past tense--if it was proposed that way in the first place).